JAMESTOWN -- Some years, Christmas is a blind diabetic dog joined by a three-legged bundle of calico fur with a purr that won't quit.

In Jamestown, this is one of those Christmases. And for Louis Maurer, it passes for magical.

The tripod purveyor of purr in question is Shadow the cat, who came to live with Maurer last month after an improbable and mysterious journey, providing companionship to Maurer and his old dog Pepper -- and just as importantly, a living link to his great friend, the late Joey Howlett.

Like so many things in Jamestown as 2013 runs down, it all goes back to the flood.

'He was the center of this town'

Howlett, the former owner of the Jamestown Mercantile, the mountain enclave's social hub and a landmark for all visitors to the community, died late the night of Sept. 11, when a mud and debris slide from the area of the 2003 Overland Fire collapsed his home at 150 Main St. Howlett, 72, was one of four people to die in Boulder County during one of the worst flood events to strike the Front Range in the past century.

"He was the center of this town," Maurer said. "He got the Thursday night spaghetti dinners going, which turned into the music nights. He was there for everybody. As far as I was concerned, he was the most important man in this town, as far as keeping the whole thing together."

After Howlett was killed, also presumed dead in the wreckage of his home was his 12-year-old cat Shadow, a name suggested by a face split evenly between a caramel shade on one side, charcoal gray on the other.

Presumption of Shadow's passing endured for the next 40 days, until Jamestown resident Heather Yahnke was walking by Howlett's property around mid-day Oct. 21, and saw movement about 50 yards up the gulch, above the ruins.

It was Shadow -- alive, but not entirely well.

Shadow the cat, after being nursed back to health following its 40-day post-flood disappearance.
(Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

She had suffered a compound fracture of her left hind leg. Yahnke saw the bone sticking through the fur.

"I was quite shocked, because we had all assumed that she had perished with Joey, but I recognized her right away," Yahnke said. "I walked up there. ... She was obviously hurt, and so I approached her. I got about 10 feet away, and she came to me.

"She must have hunkered down somewhere and nursed that wound, until she could move about."

Perhaps just as surprisingly, Howlett's goldfish also survived the catastrophe.

Nursing Shadow back to health

Knowing Shadow was Howlett's cat, Yahnke collected the animal and took her to the Jamestown Town Hall.

"She must have just been hanging out, somewhere, because her wound was really clean," said Anne Breiler, the Jamestown resident who would take Shadow to Nederland veterinarian Dr. Joseph Evans for treatment.

"She was skinny, but obviously had found food somehow, somewhere. Dr. Evans said that when he saw her, she was so adept at walking on three legs already that her initial accident likely happened somewhere close to the 11th or the 12th of September," Breiler said.

The leg required amputation, and for the next several weeks, Shadow rehabbed at the home of Breiler -- already the owner of two cats.

"I tried repeatedly to introduce them to her while she was here, and she would have no part," Breiler said. "She didn't want anything to do with them. When she lived with Joey, she was an only pet. So she just defended her territory. She was 12 years old, and didn't want to deal with anybody else."

Evans had granted a "huge, huge, discount" on Shadow's surgery, Breiler said, and charged nothing for the feline's antibiotics. Breiler paid the bill of about $600 when she collected Shadow from the vet on Oct. 24. About $400 of that was ultimately covered by a sympathetic horse rescue organization, and Jamestown residents chipped in another $200 to reimburse Breiler for the balance.

But Shadow needed a new home.

Louis Maurer holds Shadow outside his home in Jamestown. The cat belonged to Joey Howlett, who was killed in last September s flood, and was missing and presumed dead for 40 days before emerging with a mangled leg, which has since been amputated. Mauer has since adopted his departed friend's cat.
(Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

'She's got her special places'

"I jumped at the chance to have her, and, of course, I had to be graded a little on whether I would take good enough care of her," said Maurer, 64, whose house just up the road from Breiler's and Howlett's properties bears the name "Monkey Ranch" -- and exudes a matching informality.

"They wanted to make sure I could meet what special needs she needed, and everything, and I said I thought I knew Shadow well enough to figure that one out," said Maurer, who is semi-retired, but still owns his own maintenance business. "I raised three kids, and stuff like that. I think I can handle it."

Since the second week of November, Shadow has settled down at Maurer's home, the original schoolhouse for Jamestown, believed to have been constructed in the late 1870s. He shows a visitor a picture of the Jamestown School class of 1881, taken outside the place he has resided for about the last seven years.

"She likes to hang out in the bathtub," he said, as Shadow settled into his lap for some affectionate strokes.

"She's very loving," he said. "She likes to be queen of the house. She'll come in, in the middle of the night, and curl up with me for a while, and then go back out. She's got her special places, and she's always been somewhat of an outdoor cat.

"Even though she has three legs, I gave her a cat door, and she just comes in and out. She spends more time in, than out, than I think she used to."

Maurer's blind, diabetic dog, Pepper, "10 or 11 years old" herself, has put up no protests over having a new housemate. And, just because Shadow is now burdened by a late-in-life disability, she still has some pluck.

"She had a mouse in here the other day," Maurer said. "The lack of that leg didn't seem to bother her. She caught it, she played with it, she tossed it, and then let it go -- to play with again at some point, I guess."

Or maybe Shadow was just saving it for a Christmas treat.

Symbol of a town's resilience

Maurer planned to attend the traditional 5 p.m. Christmas Eve candlelight service at the church in Jamestown -- "The reverend always says, 'See you again next year,'" Maurer said with a laugh -- and planned to join his 18-year-old twin daughters and his ex-wife for breakfast and presents on Christmas Day. He'll also see his son, 26.

And although there isn't a speck of Christmas decor visible in his abode, the holiday has a special meaning for Maurer this year.

"Shadow is one of the best Christmas presents I've ever gotten. She's truly a gift," Maurer said. "I've had lots of cats, but this is a very special cat."

She is affectionate, yes. But she is also a tangible surviving bond to a great friend, a man much loved in Jamestown -- who also witnessed at Maurer's wedding, and was godfather to one of his daughters.

And, further, she is a symbol.

Breiler said that on Christmas, T-shirts were to be distributed to residents of Jamestown, which saw 26 structures destroyed in the flood and, immediately afterward, the town's population drop from around 300 to about 20 as most of its residents were forced, or chose, to relocate at least until roads were reopened.

The shirts will bear Shadow's likeness and the words "Jamestown Strong."

"She kind of became our little hero," said Breiler, whose town still shows significant physical scarring from September's trauma. "If she can come out of the rubble, so can we."

Maurer said, "If that cat can survive, it shows that any thing and any town can survive. She's a symbol of determination and perseverance through disastrous times.

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